{"id":16643,"date":"2021-02-25T10:16:03","date_gmt":"2021-02-25T18:16:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chocolatebythebay.com\/magazine\/?p=16643"},"modified":"2024-02-18T15:27:17","modified_gmt":"2024-02-18T23:27:17","slug":"sweet-torture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chocolatebythebay.com\/magazine\/local-chocolate\/sweet-torture\/","title":{"rendered":"Sweet torture"},"content":{"rendered":"

People read a lot into chocolate. Of course, it\u2019s tasty and satisfying, but it\u2019s also a special treat, comfort food, a link to happy memories, etc. And all of those mental and emotional associations can come from a single plain square of chocolate. But if you really want to up your chocolate experiences, you should try a La For\u00eat allocation.<\/p>\n

\"spring
La For\u00eat\u2019s\u00a0Spring 2020 allocation was a treasure trove of tastes & textures<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Allocations aren\u2019t a new type of chocolate; they are sets of bonbons, but they are \u201cextra\u201d and ephemeral. La\u00a0For\u00eat<\/a> produces 4 sets of allocations each year \u2014 one for each season \u2014 consisting of 10 unique flavors. They make one batch of each allocation, and when they are sold out, they are gone.<\/p>\n

As I write this, I just received an email that their Spring 2021 collection is now available for shipping March 9. If you miss that, you might be able to snag a box at their shop in Napa that first week, but once those are sold, that\u2019s it; there\u2019s nothing until the summer allocation of 10 new flavors in June.<\/p>\n

I have tried 2 of their allocations so far, and they were both top notch. But also kinda saddening and maddening because no matter how much I liked certain pieces, I probably can never experience them again.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s because La For\u00eat doesn\u2019t sell bonbons the rest of the year \u2014 if you visit the shop, you won\u2019t see any display cases of bonbons\u00a0to peruse like in most other chocolate shops \u2014 they have legitimate concerns about the quality and freshness of bonbons stored in a case for days before they are sold. So La For\u00eat only makes bonbons for the allocations and aims to make just enough of those to send out immediately to people who have ordered them.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an interesting approach to selling bonbons. La For\u00eat sells other types of chocolate and confections year round in their shop and online, but bonbons are special limited edition, limited time offers.<\/p>\n

Spring forward<\/h2>\n

The first allocation I tried was the Spring 2020 collection, a box of 25 pieces, so there were at least 2 bonbons of each of the 10 featured flavors. Wendy Sherwood, founder, owner, and head chocolatier at La For\u00eat, told me she usually develops a theme each year for the allocations, and since she started La For\u00eat in 2010, the 2020 theme was to feature flavors from previous allocations, so each allocation had one flavor from each of the 10 preceding years.<\/p>\n

Devonshire Cream<\/h3>\n

For example, the Spring Allocation\u2019s 2019 piece was Devonshire Cream, described as a clotted cream ganache white chocolate in a 70% shell. It was a subtle piece with a milky tasting ganache (as opposed to a milk chocolate ganache) covered in a thin shell of dark chocolate\u00a0that gave a nice hit of chocolate against the milky ganache. It reminded me of bonbons we got in Paris: well made with subtle flavors, not too sweet, and a thin but substantial enough chocolate shell.<\/p>\n

\"avocado\"
Avocado was surprisingly fruity<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Avocado<\/h3>\n

I was intrigued by the 2018 piece:\u00a0Avocado and lime in white chocolate ganache in a dark chocolate shell. I expected a savory bonbon, but the\u00a0green-tinted white chocolate ganache had a refreshing,\u00a0tropical fruit flavor with just\u00a0a little avocado taste at the end. I was only 2 pieces into this collection, and I was already feeling nostalgic for flavors I would never taste again.<\/p>\n

Balzac\u2019s 50 Cups of Coffee<\/h3>\n

The allocation continued to impress and make me happy, The 2017 piece was called Balzac\u2019s 50 Cups of Coffee from La For\u00eat\u2019s\u00a0Famous Authors Collection. A\u00a0somewhat\u00a0unassuming outside consisting of a milk chocolate square splashed with a line of espresso powder hide a layered interior of white chocolate ganache in between 2 layers of 85% Valrhona Abinao\u00a0coffee flavored\u00a0ganache. It had an immediate coffee flavor enhanced by a\u00a0slightly grainy texture and buttery overtones. The 3-chocolate combo moderated the espresso so it evoked the taste of a cup of coffee with milk and sugar.<\/p>\n

PB & Purple<\/h3>\n

I was excited about the 2016 selection:\u00a0PB & Purple, a milk chocolate peanut butter ganache with blackberry p\u00e2te de fruit in a dark chocolate shell. It was another layered piece with peanut butter ganache and\u00a0p\u00e2te de fruit layers.\u00a0It was very peanut buttery tasting with an authentic peanut butter texture. The blackberry came after the peanut butter and was slightly tart: a good combo with the peanut butter. And this peanut butter lover loved that the peanut butter taste was the one that lingered. I\u2019d call this piece addictive, except that I cannot have it again because, allocation.<\/p>\n

Maui Gold<\/h3>\n

The 2015 Maui Gold piece was a white ganache of pineapple roasted with cane sugar molasses in a 38% milk chocolate shell.\u00a0It was so pine-appley! Both in flavor and texture. The taste reminded me of the tiny pineapple turnovers my aunt used to make when I was a kid, and the\u00a0slight pineapple texture was awesome. The milk chocolate was a very light flavor in the piece; the pineapple dominated and\u00a0lingered. I loved it.<\/p>\n

\"sakura\"
The glowing Sakura<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Sakura<\/h3>\n

The 2014 Sakura was a pretty piece with an opalescent white shell dome topped with a glittery pink \u201cpetal.\u201d I wasn\u2019t sure I would like it because the ingredients included marzipan, which I don\u2019t care for. And inside the white chocolate shell there was indeed a layer of marzipan on top of a buttercream layer flavored with cherry blossoms (Sakura<\/em> is Japanese for cherry blossom) and including bits of preserved cherry blossoms.<\/p>\n

It smelled like marzipan and old-fashioned cherry throat lozenges (a smell that triggers pleasant childhood memories for me). The cherry cough drop flavor dominated the sweet-almond flavor of the marzipan, so I didn\u2019t mind the marzipan. Plus this marzipan wasn\u2019t dry or hard. It melted in my mouth. I surprised myself by liking it \u2014 and I\u2019m beginning to suspect I\u2019ve only had bad marzipan up to this point in my life.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Crunchy Rhubarb Crisp<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Rhurbarb Crisp<\/h3>\n

The 2013 Rhurbarb Crisp was a cool looking piece consisting of a thick white chocolate disk topped with what looked like the oatmeal topping on a fruit crisp doused with cream. Inside was rhubarb and vanilla p\u00e2te de fruit and more vanilla in buttercream. It smelled very vanilla and oat-y. The first flavor impression was tart, then came the oat and cinnamon crunch from the topping. It was not overwhelmingly tart; it was more on the white chocolate and oatmeal crisp range. It was a fun piece and tasted good, but I would have liked more rhubarb flavor.<\/p>\n

Rosemary Almond Praline<\/h3>\n

The 2012 Rosemary Almond Praline is a flavor that you can get year-round (in theory) because it is the same flavor as La For\u00eat\u2019s\u00a0Florentine Almond bar. In the bonbon\u00a0version, the dark chocolate shell enclosed a square of milk chocolate and almond praline and was garnished with rosemary and cumin salt. The praline smelled very nutty (though if I didn\u2019t know, I wouldn\u2019t have guessed almond) and was full of\u00a0finely chopped nuts. It was a savory, not sweet piece with the first hit being rosemary, then cumin with a citrusy overtone. It had a nice texture from the chopped nuts (which definitely tasted like almonds). And the rosemary lingered along with the almond taste.<\/p>\n

Les Baies Roses<\/h3>\n

The 2011 Les Baies Roses was a pink peppercorn infused dark chocolate ganache in a dark chocolate shell. The simplicity worked because it had an immediate distinctly pink peppercorn flavor with slight heat coming after, and the flavor lasted a long time.<\/p>\n

Salted Butter Caramel<\/h3>\n

The last flavor of the batch, the 2010 Salted Butter Caramel was the piece that started it all, as Wendy developed it when working at the French Laundry and the experience was inspirational in starting her own chocolate shop. It is also the one bonbon that you can at La For\u00eat; I assume because it is more shelf stable than the other flavors. It\u2019s a soft buttery caramel. Unlike other salted caramels, there is no salt\u00a0sprinkled\u00a0on top and it\u2019s not salty tasting. Instead the salt lifts the butter caramel flavor. The flavor of the dark chocolate shell comes after and blends into the caramel for a long aftertaste.<\/p>\n

Fall back<\/h2>\n

The other allocation I tried was the Fall 2020 collection, which also featured 10 unique flavors from the past 10 years of allocations. And like the Spring allocation, it came in an elegant clamshell (solander) box (which Cacaopod is reusing to store small artwork in) wrapped with an attractive strip of marbleized paper. Allocations would be ideal extra special gifts for chocolate lovers on your list.<\/p>\n

L\u2019Abricot<\/h3>\n

The 2019 L\u2019Abricot was an apricot p\u00e2te de fruit and dark chocolate ganache in a dark chocolate shell. It had a good peach\/apricot smell, and a dominant\u00a0dark chocolate\/mild apricot taste. It had a\u00a0soft smooth texture that melted easily, and the subtle peach\/apricot flavor lingered.<\/p>\n

Kokoa Kamili Fermentary<\/h3>\n

The 2018\u00a0Kokoa Kamili Fermentary was a single origin bonbon that Wendy and her crew roasted and refined the beans for in-house(!) to make a 70% ganache in a dark chocolate shell. The ganache was very dark, almost black, with a\u00a0rich fermented flavor that was\u00a0just enough to taste extra chocolatey. It went from fermented to\u00a0fruity as it melted. It was a very smooth, creamy ganache in a nice thin shell.<\/p>\n

\"tonka
The Tonka Chai bonbon featured an unusual ingredient<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Tonka Chai<\/h3>\n

The 2017 Tonka Chai was a beautiful piece: a dark chocolate dome with a bold indigo swirl. While I know what chai is, I had to look up tonka bean, which is what flavored the other half of the piece. Turns out they are like vanilla beans, but are generally\u00a0banned from import to the US, so I guess that\u2019s why I never heard of them.<\/p>\n

The piece itself contained a milk chocolate ganache flavored with black tea and chai spices and a salted butter caramel flavored with\u00a0tonka bean. It was\u00a0a good chocolatey chocolate (one of La For\u00eat\u2019s strengths is their house-made couverture) and\u00a0had a distinctly chai flavor with soft vanilla caramel undertones. Like La For\u00eat\u2019s OG Salted Butter Caramel bonbons, it wasn\u2019t salty, except it had a tiny salty end, while the chocolate and chai flavors lingered.<\/p>\n

Orange Torres<\/h3>\n

The 2016 Orange Torres was just the ticket for orange chocolate lovers with house-candied Valencia orange peel and Spanish bitter orange liqueur ganache in a dark chocolate shell.\u00a0Those double doses of orange made for a very\u00a0orangey\u00a0initial hit, which transitioned to bitter orange, then turned super chocolatey. It had a\u00a0little more texture than a\u00a0typica\u00a0ganache but they must have cut the candied orange peel\u00a0super fine because the texture was on the level of sugar granules.<\/p>\n

Baklava<\/h3>\n

The 2015 Baklava was amazing. From the start: Where does the idea to put flaky baklava in a bonbon come from? And to be able to execute the idea successfully? Wow. Wendy put crisp filo shards, walnut praline, and crystallized honey powder in a milk chocolate ganache in a milk chocolate shell, and made it work. It was crispy to cut and smelled of nuts\u00a0and honey. It was super crunchy, and tasted\u00a0like chocolate covered baklava. And unlike some baklava I\u2019ve had, it was\u00a0not too sweet or sticky. It had a pronounced honey walnut taste in a good light milk chocolate. One of my favs and\u00a0a really cool piece.<\/p>\n

Mariage Fr\u00e9res<\/h3>\n

The 2014 Mariage Fr\u00e9res used the French brand\u2019s Earl Grey tea to flavor the ganache. It smelled chocolatey along with that distinctive Earl Grey\u00a0bergamot smell. It tasted mostly of chocolate with a light Earl Grey flavor from the middle to the end. It was just the right\u00a0amount of Earl Grey; distinct, but not perfume-y.<\/p>\n

\"baci
My camera doesn\u2019t do the Baci Nocciola\u2019s luster justice<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Chicory Caf\u00e9 au Lait<\/h3>\n

The 2013 Chicory Caf\u00e9 au Lait\u00a0had a laid back feel to it with a\u00a0milky,\u00a0mild coffee flavored white chocolate ganache in a dark shell. It tasted mostly chocolate-y and ended with that mild coffee flavor from the chicory\/coffee combo. All it needed was a beignet covered with powdered sugar. (I miss\u00a0traveling.)<\/p>\n

Baci Nocciola<\/h3>\n

The 2012 Baci Nocciola was a very pretty swirled ball covered in gold luster. This seemed to me\u00a0like a\u00a0prettier and crunchier take on traditional chocolate candies with a tasty, extra crunchy hazelnut praline in a milk chocolate ganache and shell. It was a satisfying nostalgia trip.<\/p>\n

\"root
Just the cutest root beer float bonbon you will ever see<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Root Beer Float<\/h3>\n

The 2011 Root Beer Float on the other hand, was the bomb! It looked like a mini-cupcake with its white chocolate frosting-like swirl on top dotted with a chocolate pearl. The piece itself had root beer p\u00e2te de fruit pieces floating in root beer infused white chocolate ganache. It was sweet, because of course a root beer float is sweet \u2014 it’s ice cream and soda. And it was\u00a0yummy\u00a0with that distinct root beer float flavor.<\/p>\n

But what made it extra special was its texture: the slippery pate in the buttery ganache imitated fuzzy soda and ice cream. So cool! Wendy totally captured both the flavor and experience of a root beer float in this one. I am so sorry neither you or I will ever experience this again.<\/p>\n

Smoked Maple Pecan<\/h3>\n

The last piece, the 2010 Smoked Maple Pecan, while not the bomb, certainly held its own. Described as applewood-smoked pecan praline cream in a milk chocolate shell, it was a very flavorful maple and sweet pecan experience. The finely chopped praline gives a satisfying small crunch, and the maple was distinct. I think it’s hard to get maple right in chocolate \u2014 it can easily become like maple candy, grainy and super-sweet, or just be indistinctly sweet \u2014 but this was good. It had an accurate maple flavor without excess sweetness, and the piece\u00a0had a buttery ending like butter brickle ice cream.<\/p>\n

Chocolate experiences<\/h2>\n
\"fall
The Fall 2020 allocation was just as fun as the Spring allocation<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

La For\u00eat chocolates are great. I\u2019ve tried some of their bars and other confections<\/a>, and they were all excellent, and available year-round. But the allocations are truly special.<\/p>\n

The bonbons have very evocative tastes, both of what they are labeled \u2014 the Baklava tastes like baklava \u2014 and the experiences I associate with those tastes. And it\u2019s\u00a0not just flavors but textures are a big deal. For example, I love Michael Mischer<\/a>\u2019s root beer bonbons, but they are simply a root beer infused liquid caramel in chocolate. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but La For\u00eat\u2019s Root Beer Float was a whole root beer float flavor AND texture experience.<\/p>\n

I am not a chocolatier, heck, I don\u2019t even cook, but I can only assume that producing these allocations is very labor intensive because they are so intricate. That could be another reason they are one-offs \u2014 too much work! And even the simpler, more subtle pieces hit all the marks for excellent chocolate: the appearance, the thin shells, the distinct but balanced flavors; Wendy is trained in French-style chocolate which is probably my favorite, and I think her chocolates are on par or better than what I\u2019ve had in Paris.<\/p>\n

I felt a little torn writing this review because it\u2019s like writing about a dance performance or an historic event. You kinda had to be there because it\u2019s not going to happen again. I am sad that I can\u2019t experience these chocolates again; and I don\u2019t know if this is just frustrating to read when you can never experience them.<\/p>\n

However, as I mentioned at the start, you can order upcoming allocations and experience those. Sign up on La For\u00eat\u2019s website, so you can be notified when it\u2019s time to order the next allocation.<\/p>\n

You have to act ASAP if you want to order the Spring 2021 allocation. The theme is Shop Small and features ingredients from small producers of fine foods. You can order the standard 25-piece box, or there is a new smaller\u00a0box option this time that contains 16 bonbons. You can find more information on their website.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A different meaning to bittersweet chocolate<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":21719,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,884,169],"tags":[636,657,1486,1484,640,1485,664,1489,696,442,552,390,1464,798,534,416,877,659,138,561,1490,1487,1488,256,529,196,1460,1279],"class_list":["post-16643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-chocolate","category-north-bay","category-reviews","tag-almond","tag-apricot","tag-avocado","tag-baklava","tag-blackberry","tag-cafe-au-lait","tag-chai","tag-cherry-blossom","tag-chicory","tag-earl-grey","tag-espresso","tag-hazelnut","tag-kokoa-kamili","tag-la-foret-chocolate","tag-lime","tag-maple","tag-marzipan","tag-orange","tag-peanut-butter","tag-pecan","tag-pineapple","tag-pink-peppercorn","tag-rhubarb","tag-root-beer","tag-rosemary","tag-salted-caramel","tag-tanzania","tag-tonka-bean"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chocolatebythebay.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chocolatebythebay.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chocolatebythebay.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chocolatebythebay.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chocolatebythebay.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16643"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/chocolatebythebay.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16643\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41780,"href":"https:\/\/chocolatebythebay.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16643\/revisions\/41780"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chocolatebythebay.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chocolatebythebay.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chocolatebythebay.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chocolatebythebay.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}